It’s not easy to redesign something that already has a very simple and minimalist design like the Google homepage, but the members of collaborative challenge-based design blog The Letter Society have decided to do just that.

For their latest challenge, the designers have redesigned the Google homepage. The challenge was limited to the redesign of the current site and rebranding the site or adding new features or functions were optional.

Designer Erik Wagner, who thought up the challenge, used Google’s color palette to create a full colored background and included a map at the bottom with a scrubber. On the other hand, Mark Manalaysay made the homepage even simpler by removing all other icons except the search bar. The designer also proposed a responsive layout and an integration with Google Now.

Another designer, Alli Grunthaner, took inspiration from today’s “touch/swipe” technology and created simple tiles for the user’s customized searches.

Casey Crisenbery used a search line instead of the usual text box and placed the icons for the Google apps at the bottom. The apps would be customizable and interfaced with the navigation of other partner sites.

Frances Palmer included Google Trends on the homepage and also added the user’s Google Now information on the bottom half of the page.

Designer Jenn DiMenna asked her friends what they wanted from Google and based her design on a Google for Android interface. She redesigned the homepage like a personal dashboard with the user’s apps on the right side of the page. She also added a feature where a search will not only look through the web but also through the user’s dashboard.

Jake Nolan’s redesign involved removing the search window and placing the Google apps and tools at the bottom. The apps could be switched around to include other things like an RSS feed from a Blogger blog or a link to Google Wallet.

The redesigns show that even though Google’s pages are already simple and easy on the eyes, they can still look more appealing with a few more added features.

You can find the images to the redesigns on The Letter Society page, and check out some more of the images below.